Common types of financial instruments include credit cards, debit cards, and stored-value instruments. A stored-value instrument is a financial instrument, usually structured as a means for payment, in which funds are associated with the instrument and not necessarily associated with any individual. Gift and pre-paid cards are a common form of stored-value instrument. Gift cards in particular have become extremely popular in recent years. Gift cards essentially relieve the donor of the burden of selecting a specific and individually appropriate gift for the recipient, instead allowing the recipient to choose, from the range of products sold by the issuer, the actual goods or services s/he wishes upon redemption. Most gift cards resemble credit cards in size and composition, although increasingly gift cards are becoming virtualized for delivery and redemption across digital networks. Gift cards also tend to display a specific theme that corresponds to the issuer of the card. Although gift cards are typically identified by a specific number or code, gift cards are typically not associated with an individual name or account. Thus, gifts cards can be used by anybody. In order to support gift cards, an issuer of gift cards maintains (directly or indirectly) an on-line electronic system for authorization and accounting of gift cards issued by the issuer. Some gift cards can be “reloaded” with additional monetary value. Thus, the funds associated with such gift cards can be depleted and replenished multiple times.
One disadvantage of gift cards over other forms of payment is that many gift cards have an expiration date, which may vary between a few months to a few years. If the holder of a gift card does not use the gift card before the expiration date, then the issuer of the gift card may deplete or completely eliminate the associated credit from the associated card. Alternatively, due to laws in some states, the funds represented by the gift card may be claimed as “lost property” by the state in which the issuer resides or where the purchase of the gift card took place.
Another disadvantage of gift cards is that gift cards can only be used to make purchases from merchants designated by the issuers of the gift cards. Typically, the issuers of the gift cards only designate themselves. For example, a Company X's gift card can only be used at Company X's store (whether online or in a “brick and mortar” store). The Company X's gift card cannot be used to purchase items from Company Y because Company Y does not recognize Company X's gift card as valid payment. Further, Company Y is incapable of removing any balance from Company X's gift card. In this way, gift cards are considered “closed-loop” stored-value instruments. With respect to Company X's gift card, Company Y is said to be “outside of the loop.” A closed-loop stored-value instrument (or simply “closed-loop instrument”) is typically sold by an individual retailer, serviced by the retailer (or its agents), and is accepted for purchases only at that particular retailer's locations. Another characteristic of a closed-loop instrument is that such an instrument is issued by an entity and liability is incurred by the same entity. For example, a merchant (such as Company X) issues a gift card with a positive balance and, upon issuance, incurs liability to offer goods or services in exchange for the monetary value reflected by the balance on the gift card. The gift card may only be used to purchase goods or services from that particular merchant.
Yet another disadvantage of a gift card is that, because it may be used only for goods or services offered by the issuer, a gift card recipient may not be able to fully utilize the card and put it to its best use. For example, the recipient of the gift card may not wish to purchase any of the goods or services offered by the issuer, or may have more of a need to purchase goods or services from another merchant. Or there may not be a store location convenient to the recipient, making use of the card inconvenient. In these instances, the recipient may prefer to receive the market value for the card in cash or may prefer to deploy the market value of the card against a purchase at another merchant, rather than have the card either expire or simply go unused.
In some situations, a holding company may own multiple merchants, and allow its gift cards to be used at any of the merchants that it owns. However, even in this situation, the issuing entity and the entity that incurs the liability are the same. Consequently, even though one of the gift cards issued by the holding company may be labeled with one of its merchants and used to purchase an item from another of its merchants, such gift cards are still closed-loop instruments. With respect to gift cards issued by the holding company, the multiple merchants owned by the holding company are considered to be “inside the loop.”
In contrast, an “open-loop” instrument is an instrument that is issued by a bank or other financial institution that has a banking license. A banking license requires its holder to comply with general banking regulations to which issuers of closed-loop instruments need not comply. Open-loop instruments, unlike closed-loop instruments, also may operate over debit or credit networks, carry a network logo (e.g., Visa®), and can be used at any retail location that accepts the payment form. Common open-loop instruments include debit cards that are issued by banks and credit cards that are issued by Visa®, MasterCard®, American Express® or Discover®. When a customer with an open-loop instrument completes a purchase from a merchant using the open-loop instrument, the customer incurs liability to pay the issuing bank while the issuer of the open-loop instrument authorizes and settles against the liability.
Some instruments may be considered “semi-open” in that they may be accepted by a limited number of different merchants. An example of such an instrument is a “mall card” that is accepted by multiple (or all) merchants in a particular mall. Another example of such an instrument is a “university card” that is accepted by multiple (or all) merchants located on or around a particular university's campus. These “semi-open” instruments are considered closed-loop because the issuer is not a financial institution that is required to have a banking license and the merchants that accept the instruments are limited to those designated by the issuer of the instrument.
Based on the foregoing, what is needed is a way for a gift card holder to maximize the value of a gift card while being able to avoid some of its drawbacks.